At Fry-IT
Getting Things Done: GTD
15th of June 2006
Getting Things Done (GTD) is a very interesting system for time management and, well, just getting things done. The system was created by David Allen and has a huge following. I've been trying it out a for a few months, not as wholeheartedly as I should but I really like it and would recommend it to anyone.
I first read about it in an article in the guardian newspaper. I then searched around the internet bought the book and got going.
The main idea is to get all that buzz out of your head and into a trusted system, which you know you will review regularly. You have projects, which can range from getting a new bicycle helmet to setting up a new factory in India. Then you need to think about what is the Next Action (NA) to move that project on. If you can do the next action within 2 minuntes then do it straight away otherwise store it.
Another idea is to put the things that need doing in a context: there is no point remembering that you need to buy milk if you are stuck in a meeting. The idea is that you put your actions into context so that the next time you are on your bike or out and about you can look at your "on my bike context" (don't try this while you are riding though!) and then see if there is anything that can be done.
Before all this you are supposed to spend 2 days or so just having a massive clearout of all the things that have been on your mind. You are supposed put these into a big in-tray and then put them into your system. This is the bit I keep putting off as I could only really do this during working hours and something always comes up. Soon...
I like the ideas: you might wonder why bother with small chores and mix them up with large important work stuff but the idea is that those small things are always at the back of your mind and regularly nag you when you can't do anything about them. We've all discovered the release of energy when we have completed those annoying boring chores and are always amazed at how little time they took even though we had been fretting about them on a low level for a long time. GTD can you give a 'mind like water' as David Allen puts it.
The system itself can be anything from paper: Hipster PDA to all manner of electronic PDAs such as the palm (which is used by David Allen himself). At the moment I am using Tracks which is one of those ruby-on-rails/AJAX/Web2.0 which I really like.
Anyway have fun trying it.